Michael Chavis’ power surge comes two years after his last certified ink

He’s not exactly a come-from-nowhere player, but the power is coming through for one Boston Red Sox minor-leaguer.

Michael Chavis hit his 14th home run of the season Sunday for High-A Salem — and actually his 13th, too, since it was his third multi-homer game of the year. That’s just two-shy of his career-high from two years ago in 109 games.

He’s hitting .343 through 47 games (so that home run pace looks even stronger) and the good news here is that he’s just 21 years old since he was just 18 back in 2014 when Boston took him with the 26th overall pick.

Continue reading

Elite Extra Edition boxes can pay off for bargain hunters & auto chasers

To say that the baseball card landscape has changed in the last decade might be an understatement, but there’s been one prospecting brand that has delivered many of the biggest names early and often and delivered a good amount of ink, too, thanks to Hot Boxes.

It’s packed a number of surprise inclusions, a tremendous rainbow of serial-numbered parallel autos and even some pretty good bargains as many collectors have their established habits elsewhere. In recent years, it’s also given us a teaser of younger USA Baseball players, too.

This mainstay — and arguably a simultaneous sleeper — is Elite Extra Edition

Continue reading

Buzz List: Nine autographs to find in 2013 & 2014 Elite Extra Edition boxes

Elite-Extra-Edition-logoCountless collectors call themselves prospectors, and that particular focus is one that can lead to a lot of pack-ripping or a lot of secondary market purchases with future flips in mind.

One brand that’s got many of those coveted newcomer names year after year is Elite Extra Edition, which is Panini America‘s foilboard-focused prospecting brand that typically packs one of the deepest checklists and, with Hot Boxes, some of the highest autograph totals in the hobby.

While the dust isn’t yet settling on the recently released newest edition of the brand, Buzz decided to take a look back at nine names who you should know from the previous two editions (2013 and 2014) and see how they did last season. Why? There are inevitably some bargains to be had if you consider this brand and these guys (along with countless other players that may not yet be on the radars of too many prospectors) given box prices these days. After all, old wax can still be good wax if the price is right.

Continue reading